The boss of budget airline Ryanair has suggested the army should be brought in to help at UK airports struggling to cope with half-term demands. Michael O’Leary said it could help amid widespread disruption - and warned of more problems over the summer.
Holidaymakers have faced long queues at airports, with industry experts blaming staff shortages for ongoing flight delays and cancellations. Since the start of the pandemic more than 30,000 employees are believed to have been laid off by UK airlines.
Regarding the situation, Mr O’Leary said “defence personnel with experience providing security” should be drafted in. Although queues seem to have died down since the peak of disruption at the weekend, there are concerns that the industry will struggle again with demand surging in July and August.
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He told ITV News: "Bringing in the army, which they do at many other European airports, would, at a stroke, relieve the pressure on airport security and would mean that people have a much better experience – not just this weekend, but for each weekend over the next three, four months.”
He also hit back at a claim by transport secretary, Grant Shapps, on Wednesday that travel firms have "seriously oversold flights and holidays relative to the capacity to deliver". O’Leary said no airline operator “is going to deliberately sell a flight that they can’t crew or operate” and that crew shortages often happened at very short notice.
He added: “Army personnel, defence personnel who are good at providing security could relieve the pressure. And that would be something useful that this government could do instead of blaming the airports or the airlines, which doesn’t solve anything.
“We are going to have pinch points at the UK airports right through to the end of this summer until the kids go back to school in September. And I believe that the best way of solving these pinch points … is to deploy military personnel who are security trained and who could relieve the pressure on airport security and if you relieve the pressure in airport security, you get rid of the queues.”
The Department for Transport said it had "no plans" to use the army at airports. It added: "It is for operators to ensure airports and airlines are appropriately staffed."
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